By Anita Snow. .c The Associated Press
HAVANA, 22 (AP) - Cuba reiterated its denial of U.S. charges that one of its diplomats in Washington engaged in espionage, saying Tuesday that all of the official's dealings with a U.S. immigration officer suspected of spying for the communist country were public and legal.
``To recruit people to undertake espionage is not conceivable nor has ever been undertaken by officials in our Interests Section in Washington,'' the Cuban government said in a lengthy statement carried by state news media.
The statement admitted that Mariano Faget, a Cuban-born supervisor with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, had contact with officials at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington.
But they discussed migration accords between the two countries and illegal entries into the United States by Cubans, not sensitive intelligence matters, the government said.
Faget was arrested in Miami last week on charges of passing classified information to Cuba's communist government.
The Miami Herald on Tuesday identified the diplomat targeted for expulsion as Jose Imperatori. Neither Washington nor Havana has named the Cuban official ordered to leave the United States by the end of this week, but the government statement did name Imperatori as someone Faget had talked to in
the past.
Havana has accused Washington of inventing the spy charges to block the return of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba and has said it will not willingly withdraw the official.
U.S. officials have said the two cases are unrelated and that Faget has not been involved in decisions involving Elian. The U.S. State Department said Tuesday the official will lose his diplomatic privileges if Cuba continues to insist that he remain in the United States.
Elian has been at the center of a U.S.-Cuban custody dispute since he was found Thanksgiving Day lashed to an inner tube off the Florida coast. His mother and 10 others died when their boat capsized during an attempt to flee Cuba.
His father and the Cuban government have demanded the boy's return. Elian's Miami relatives have gone to court to block an INS ruling that ordered him returned to Cuba.
The Miami Herald, citing three U.S. officials it did not name, said Imperatori met with Elian's grandmothers, Raquel Rodriguez and Mariela Quintana, after they arrived at a Miami airport for an aborted attempt to meet with their grandson on Jan. 23.
The newspaper said Imperatori, based in Washington, ordered the grandmothers' jet fueled after a tense standoff at Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport and accompanied them on the return flight to Washington.
The grandmothers met with Elian on Jan. 26. It is unknown whether Imperatori was with them during their second visit.
The Cuban government statement also viewed as ``extremely strange'' the sudden illness of U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler, who was to rule Tuesday on attempts by Elian's Miami relatives to block his return to Cuba.
U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore was assigned Tuesday to replace Hoeveler, who was hospitalized over the weekend for an apparent stroke.
Hundreds of Cuban athletes and coaches, headed by Olympic medalists Javier Sotomayor and Alberto Juantorena, gathered Tuesday for the latest in an almost daily string of rallies pressing for the boy's return to his homeland.
Also Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida filed a brief urging the court to appoint an attorney to determine whether a ``reasonable, coherent asylum claim can be made on Elian's behalf,'' said executive director Howard Simon.
``If not, then Elian should be returned to the custody of his father,'' said Simon.
AP-NY-02-22-00 2224EST
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. |